Frockless Friday!

I'm afraid I failed at Frock on Friday this week as I have spent today washing & waxing my car with a little trip to an afternoon bootfair squeezed in.... I promise I'll be back in a fabulous frock next week. In the meantime...... 

Wednesday was my birthday and I'd just like to say a huuuge thank you to everyone who sent me a message on facebook & twitter, I generally hate birthdays but my phone was bleeping all day and I was soo touched by all your kind words! It was pretty uneventful of course, but my beautiful friend L came round for a chinese and a couple of drinkies, which was lovely.

My main pressie was this fab new gypsy caravan sewing box from Cath Kidston, it is humungous and I can fit absolutely all my bits & bobs in it. I love the little felt bunting & windows! The colours are much brighter in real life, you know how crap my pics are.....

My fave card came from my old friend H, it's a perfect 60's one & inside it says "Birthdays look good on YOU!" - love it, her sweet daughter Iris also decorated this bag for me, how cute! 

Oh yes that is a Giant Pink French Fancy Cake, and the top bit is cream just like the little ones..... 

(my b'day frock is a Clothes by Samuel Sherman 70's number, which I've had for years but never worn before!)

Hope you all have a super weekend! xxxx

Best of Etsy - What a hoot!

So as you can see the theme for this week is owls. I love their kitschyness and I think they are rather cute. One of my favourite pieces of costume jewellery is a giant articulated owl pendant form the 70's I got some years ago, unfortunately a few years ago copies of this style were all over the high street (and still are) so I feel like I can't wear mine. I'd hate to think anyone thought I'd got it from Topshop (such a snob aren't I!) Do you have any vintage pieces that have made their way into modern fashions?

Custom Felt iPhone/iPod Cover

$19 from OhMyCake

Vintage Playing Cards

$2.50 from bostonbaglady

70's Plastic Brooches

$4.99 from kidlee

Vintage Big Eyed Vase

$60 from VintageZen

Whooo! 70's Knitted Tanktop

$28 from mbaugher

Winking Owl Pendant

$8 from VintageAlchemy333

Cutesy Pink Handmade Hairpin

$2.95 from littlehalley

Mod Owl Money Tin

$18 from chixycoco

Sarah Coventry Pendant

$30 from PeaceTraveler

Best of Etsy - Wes Anderson

Welcome dear blog friends to a new feature here on Smashingbird. I'm slowly but surely getting there with my shop listings so in the meantime I thought I'd start a new feature aiming to show my best picks from Etsy with each week focusing on a different subject. This week is all about my favourite film director Wes Anderson. Click the description below to go to the listing.

You too can get the Steve Z look with this fantastic temporary tattoo, available for  $10 from  

SteveZissou 

The ultimate Life Aquatic fans dream shoe, these may even tempt me into casual footwear - yes it is the Team Zissou trainers, $145 from zissoushoes

I think these Rushmore pencils are rather amazing, I want to join the Max Fischer Players.  Set of 18 pencils $25 from tiniestj.

I <3 this Margot Tenenbaum paper doll postcard, just $3 from claudiavarosio.

Here is an item for the Tenebaum geeks, a little woolly dalmation mouse, cute! $10 from WoolyGeeks.

Who can resist a finger puppet? This felt Max is $17 from abbeychristine.

More paper dolls from The Royal Tenebaums, here we have Richie, Margot & Royal in Futura, naturally. mabgraves is selling the trio for $10.

There are some amazing posters featuring homages to Andersons films, I particularly love this Typography Life Aquatic one, $15 from sap43187.

Finally we have a little something from Fantastic Mr Fox, this gorgeous Ash print is $18 from TheBlackSheepStudio

What is your favourite Wes Anderson flick? Do leave a comment to let me know what type of things you would like me to feature on here & I promise the shop is coming sooooon!

Crafty Bloggers

I am super excited to be taking part in a little crafty blogger fun set up by the inimitable Helga, who has stitched together a rather fab little denim tote, lined with some very important royal memorabilia (aka Charles & Di Teatowel). The task is as follows: the bag will be sent to each blogger on the list below and they must then either decorate or add something to the bag + a little gifty for the next person and the finished bag will then be the prize in a giveaway. It is quite a long list and I am number 13, I hope that isn't an omen! I do have a couple of ideas as to what I'm going to add but it looks like I'm going to have plenty of time to polish up my sewing skills!

THE LIST

Sacramento

Hannah

Terri

Ivy

Janelle aka Nelly

Boheme

Miss Peregrin

Vix
Sarah

Franca

Alex

Bonnie

Smashingbird

Selenite

Missy

Kitty

Pam

Sharon Rose

Pearl

De Vero

Mary van Note

Rose & Bird

Perdita

Senora Allnut

Liz

Brian

Lynn

Desiree

Claire

Kibitz Knitz

Tracy

Sandy

La Dama

Vanessa

Josune

Aminta

Christina

Aisa

Hope Adela

I choo choo choose you.

My goodness hasn't January whizzed by! Now it's almost February and that means Valentines or for the cynical ones among us the first greetings card made up holiday of the year...  

I can tell you it's been a few years since I've got a card from my other half but I love fun & unusual stationery, so for me it's just an excuse to find the cutest card I can! 

The last card I received was actually from a customer who comes into my shop, it featured two large melons on the front and the classic line "I saw these and thought of you!" Nice. It's quite a funny story as the card obviously wasn't signed but the handwriting had some very distinguishing features so it didn't take me long to work out who sent it! I never mentioned it to the chap in question, who happens to be a local magistrate, and he didn't ask me about it either! We did have a couple of rather awkward meetings after this but I know it was sent in good humour... still kinda weird tho! Does anybody else have any odd valentines stories?

So without further ado here are my top finds from some of my favourite stationery sites. 

You Rock My World by Belle and Boo @ nineteenseventythree

Flower Heart by Heidi @ nineteenseventythree

My Sweet Flower by The Good Life @ nineteenseventythree

Cup of Tea by Esther Aarts @ Hello! Lucky

No Lion by Hello! Lucky

a-pealing by Hello! Lucky

  


And finally here is a bumper 24 pack with stickers and stamps if you are feeling very generous this year!

 Cavallini Valentine's Mailing Set @ Papernation

The bird is the word

I have quite an unreasonable fear of birds, when my fella and I lived in London a few years ago I was about to go out to work and opened my front door and in there in the hallway was like a hundred pigeons (ok ok it was more like 3) but needless to say I freaked out.

Now I really had to go out and I'm rather ashamed to say after hysterically phoning my fella and unsuccessfully attempting to convince him to come home from work and rescue me, I ended up having to throw my keys two stories down in to the street to my landlord (a rather elderly gentleman) who came and shooed the little buggers away. If a pigeon is hopping along minding his own business and happens to cross my path, I am the mad girl who stops dead or if it flies by me I will flinch and squeal, it's quite ridiculous. I think it's the flappy wings ugh *shudders*.

Besides the dreaded pidge I do find birds really rather beautiful. My favourite is the peacock, the males proud display of his stunning plumage in iridescent blues and greens, and the virginal white female are just stunning. The peacock feather has been used throughout the ages in fart and fashion, most successfully in my opinion in the edwardian and art nouveau periods. I hope you enjoy this little selection of vintage peacock themed items.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Feeling Crafty

Blimey it's been chilly out today, what with the evenings starting to draw in and the fact that I'm about to do my christmas card mailshot at work, I'm really quite looking forward to autumn and winter. I can't wait to put some thick tights, boots and a maxi coat on.

I've been thinking about taking up a craft project for a while, now I'm really not much of a crafty type of person, I have had a sewing machine for like 15 years or something but, I can do no more than very basic hemming and sewing on buttons (which all you vintage gals must know a thing or two about too!). I'd really love to be able to make my own clothes or to improve my basic alteration skills, but I just don't have the space/time at the moment to do any of that. I do have a few ideas of what I'm looking to do, now I just have to pick one!

I first saw these fabulous tapestry kits earlier in the summer and have just fallen in love with them. They are designed by Emily Peacock, I adore the old western style font and colourful vintage style design. They come in either a KISS or HUG and start at £54.99 for a small cushion kit up to £130 for the larger size. check them out here www.emilypeacock.com

Another site I have been perusing for ideas is www.clothkits.co.uk, originally started in the late 60s, they supply cut and stitch kits for a range of cool clothing, toys and home wares. I am particularly sweet on the vintage dollies.

Finally, I have found another cute looking site full of vintage inspired embroidery kits, I love the cowgirl design. Check them out here www.sublimestitching.com

Does anyone else have any craft projects on the go?